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Re: weapon of choice for RDM
Here's my take on RDM melee:
level 1-10: Absolutely as you will be solo. Alternate sword and dagger if you need skill in either. Sword preferred. Enfeeble, nuke, and self cure for skill and as needed. Spam Bar/Cure spells for enhancing /healing at your MH if you lack the skill.
level 10-20: Same as above, but now you get to learn party tactics with noobs in the Dunes, /joy. You will get enspells here. Use them as the puller is coming in if you have already rested mp (but please please please get your enhancing magic up ASAP!). Here we begin transistioning to having a real role as a mage. Our enfeebling starts pulling ahead of other mages and we get Cure II and some decent nukes (Blizzard/thunder).
Note about food: Juice really helps if you want to melee. As for food, I still have a hard time decided on any food that is actually good for a rdm. Yah you can boost mp and int or mind when doing purely made stuff, and that's good if you lack expensive gear, and real good if your race has low mp. On the other hand, if you farm and get good gears and get used to equip swaps early, you could get away eating melee foods and drinking juice to help get mp back quicker.
level 20-40 Keep meleeing when you can if you're not getting hassled. But start to think twice about dangerous AOE mobs. If you have good enhancing magic skill, stoneskin and phalanx around lvl 32 can keep you on the front line and taking less damage than the melees. Heck your natural mnd and int will already do wonders agaisnt a lot of mob tp attacks. But this is sort of a waste of your small mp pool unless you are refreshed with juices. Dispel! Gravity! Dia II!
Bear in mind that enfeebling is your main task. Backup curing is critical for saving lives. Nuking on MB or at the end of a fight is always good if you have the mp for it. So while you can do these things while engaging the mob, do not pay any attention to your melee damage. Keep focused on the log and hp/mp bars of your party, as well as your own buffs.
Personal note: I compromised and meleed up into the late 30's by
1) Demonstrating that I could manage my mp pool effciently (often disengaging to rest as needed or juicing)... You're only support after all it's ok to disengage and rest sometimes.
2) Demostrating that you can perform you're primary roles while engaged in melee. Enfeeble. Cure. MB/occaisional nuke to end the fight. Not hitting for 0's. Gear swapping helps a lot. You don't want to sacrifice magely stats in order to melee. In this regard, I swapped wands and sword constantly and had to reaquire lockon to the target after most spells. And also swapped a few pieces of melee gear frequently after spells. In essence I sacrificed WS for the sake of meleeing and spell power. Your WS won't be missed at all anyway, and you'll be resting and maybe synthing juice when you can.
When mob TP/ rdm melee sucks subjects come up, you have a few defensive arguments. 1) How am I doing at my primary job? How are we doing on xp chains? Can I just cap my weapon since I leveled? And maybe the best one: What are you worried about, my acc is kinda poor and I'm busy casting most of the fight since that's my main job, the mob is barely getting any TP from me.
Post 41 (Refresh): Stay back and be a mage. Your plate is full. If you can melee and keep up refresh and later haste, and not miss enfeebles dropping or dispels, you were born to be a Red mage. If you've gotten used to meleeing, you might still be able to pull this off for awhile yet, but mobs are getting tougher, and parties by now will not be sympathetic to your cause in the slightest....
So sadly its become a good idea to put away your blade and wield a paddle-stick and soon enough elemental staves. If your pt starts chaining T/VT and you've been doing some skillup so that you're not too far behind, by all means ask if you can melee after landing the critical enfeebles. Macro an acc+ swap and go to town just after dropping Gravity and Dia II. It's far easier/quicker to get TP on these tougher xp mobs than it is in skillup party or solo. With this in mind have the best sword or dagger avaialble for your level handy at all times (you should anyway as a point of style, you pimp mage you).
One last note: Ceremonial Dagger hits for 0. That's a free add of your enspell damage, so long as you manage MP effectively and know when is a good time to give it a rest (by resting). If you have abysmal wand and staff skill, you can melee and swap for spells without worry of landing hits with your other weapons. You're not gonna be getting any TP anyway.
Solo post 40: This is where you shine. Get all your skills up. Become a master of swap macroing and multitasking. You've got the defensive buffs and magely versatility and endurance of no other job.
Here's my take on RDM melee:
level 1-10: Absolutely as you will be solo. Alternate sword and dagger if you need skill in either. Sword preferred. Enfeeble, nuke, and self cure for skill and as needed. Spam Bar/Cure spells for enhancing /healing at your MH if you lack the skill.
level 10-20: Same as above, but now you get to learn party tactics with noobs in the Dunes, /joy. You will get enspells here. Use them as the puller is coming in if you have already rested mp (but please please please get your enhancing magic up ASAP!). Here we begin transistioning to having a real role as a mage. Our enfeebling starts pulling ahead of other mages and we get Cure II and some decent nukes (Blizzard/thunder).
Note about food: Juice really helps if you want to melee. As for food, I still have a hard time decided on any food that is actually good for a rdm. Yah you can boost mp and int or mind when doing purely made stuff, and that's good if you lack expensive gear, and real good if your race has low mp. On the other hand, if you farm and get good gears and get used to equip swaps early, you could get away eating melee foods and drinking juice to help get mp back quicker.
level 20-40 Keep meleeing when you can if you're not getting hassled. But start to think twice about dangerous AOE mobs. If you have good enhancing magic skill, stoneskin and phalanx around lvl 32 can keep you on the front line and taking less damage than the melees. Heck your natural mnd and int will already do wonders agaisnt a lot of mob tp attacks. But this is sort of a waste of your small mp pool unless you are refreshed with juices. Dispel! Gravity! Dia II!
Bear in mind that enfeebling is your main task. Backup curing is critical for saving lives. Nuking on MB or at the end of a fight is always good if you have the mp for it. So while you can do these things while engaging the mob, do not pay any attention to your melee damage. Keep focused on the log and hp/mp bars of your party, as well as your own buffs.
Personal note: I compromised and meleed up into the late 30's by
1) Demonstrating that I could manage my mp pool effciently (often disengaging to rest as needed or juicing)... You're only support after all it's ok to disengage and rest sometimes.
2) Demostrating that you can perform you're primary roles while engaged in melee. Enfeeble. Cure. MB/occaisional nuke to end the fight. Not hitting for 0's. Gear swapping helps a lot. You don't want to sacrifice magely stats in order to melee. In this regard, I swapped wands and sword constantly and had to reaquire lockon to the target after most spells. And also swapped a few pieces of melee gear frequently after spells. In essence I sacrificed WS for the sake of meleeing and spell power. Your WS won't be missed at all anyway, and you'll be resting and maybe synthing juice when you can.
When mob TP/ rdm melee sucks subjects come up, you have a few defensive arguments. 1) How am I doing at my primary job? How are we doing on xp chains? Can I just cap my weapon since I leveled? And maybe the best one: What are you worried about, my acc is kinda poor and I'm busy casting most of the fight since that's my main job, the mob is barely getting any TP from me.
Post 41 (Refresh): Stay back and be a mage. Your plate is full. If you can melee and keep up refresh and later haste, and not miss enfeebles dropping or dispels, you were born to be a Red mage. If you've gotten used to meleeing, you might still be able to pull this off for awhile yet, but mobs are getting tougher, and parties by now will not be sympathetic to your cause in the slightest....
So sadly its become a good idea to put away your blade and wield a paddle-stick and soon enough elemental staves. If your pt starts chaining T/VT and you've been doing some skillup so that you're not too far behind, by all means ask if you can melee after landing the critical enfeebles. Macro an acc+ swap and go to town just after dropping Gravity and Dia II. It's far easier/quicker to get TP on these tougher xp mobs than it is in skillup party or solo. With this in mind have the best sword or dagger avaialble for your level handy at all times (you should anyway as a point of style, you pimp mage you).
One last note: Ceremonial Dagger hits for 0. That's a free add of your enspell damage, so long as you manage MP effectively and know when is a good time to give it a rest (by resting). If you have abysmal wand and staff skill, you can melee and swap for spells without worry of landing hits with your other weapons. You're not gonna be getting any TP anyway.
Solo post 40: This is where you shine. Get all your skills up. Become a master of swap macroing and multitasking. You've got the defensive buffs and magely versatility and endurance of no other job.
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